Post by ToasterHead in Design Discussion: What do you SPECIFICALLY want feedback on?

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Hello!

I already got feedback from people that my game is hard to understand, mostly because of lack of proper introduction to the main gameplay mechanics.
My game is a puzzle-platformer with only one platform. You have to set the teleporters to move the block around.
Because of the lack of proper introduction I made it under the description, and my question is:

1. How hard and frustrating it is to learn the mechanics of the teleporters? How much did you understand it from the game + the description and how much levels could you pass?
2. After the jam ends I am planning on making an introduction from scratch, meaning that in the beginning the teleporters already set by themselves and the player only needs to figure out how to pass them. Slowly the player will get exposed to all the teleporters mechanics and only after that the player slowly gets to set the teleporters by himself.

Here's the game:

Crime Dog5 years ago

The constant death during the tutorial while I was trying to figure it out slowed the learning process considerably, and I was often dying without actually learning anything. Every death should really be a lesson in a game like this.

Your idea of having the teleporters already set is a good one, I would build on that.

A level or two where you just have to platform existing teleporters to give you a chance to get used to the platforming physics is good.

I think the next step after that would be to design a number of levels where you have to MODIFY an existing set of teleporters to make the cycle more favorable for you (for inspiration, have a look at timing-based platforming challenges in existing games, then modify them so they become impossible and the player has to fix them by affecting the teleporters).

I think your idea is a little hamstrung by the theme here, as the idea of changing the cycles of level elements in a platformer manually is a really cool twist on the genre, but being restricted to a single block (especially having it dissapear as soon as you move) really limits what you can do.

If you do stick with the one block idea, I'd double or even triple how long the ticks last for blocks; currently the platforming challenge is very high, right from the word go.

Another way to reduce complexity might be to not have all of the teleporter functionality active from the start.

You already do this a bit with the maximum-time limitations on certain teleporters, but it could be good to only have some of the more complex functionality come in later too (you could colour code the teleporters or have them in some way visually different when they have extra functionality. Bonus points if the visual difference is a tactile thing I click to activate or modify that function).

Sorry for the wall of text!

To summarize, the strongest part of the game in my opinion (for whatever that's worth) is modifying the cycles in platforming challenges manually to make them possible, or favorable. There's a huge design space to play with there, just be gentler on the players and maybe drop the one block limitation post-jam if you find you're not getting great levels out of the restriction!

ToasterHead5 years ago (3 edits)

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I need to work on the teleporters introduction, I will publish when it's ready.

Hmm, about being restricted by one block I don't think I'm that restricted. I made the game because I saw the potential in it and the idea of the teleporters came because I thought about a platformer with only one platform. I have a couple of ideas tho for making levels with 2 or 3 blocks in it, but I don't see my game having a bunch of blocks because then I don't see how the teleporters might work and make sense.

About the ticks, yeah, it might be a bit fast, but also if I make them slower it will make the repetition function obsolete, because then its too simple to get to the door/portal in time. What im planning is to make the experience and learning slower. In the begining the player cannot edit the teleporters and they will be set up in a way that requires the player to both think and react fast, so the player gets the chance to train before the real puzzles. Also I'm thinking about adding a 4 tick teleporter.

Yep, there is a huge design playground in the idea and that's why I really wanted to create the concept and to see where I can go with it. I didn't know how much time it will take me to do all the stuff since it's my first game jam. Here you can see my full playthrough and check out all the levels you might not got there yet (I edited the video so it won't be too long. In real time I've played about half an hour):

itch.io

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